Comedy Essays (Examples)

Audiences can ponder the issue of fate when presented with Oedipus, afterlife when thinking of Antigone, and motherhood and marriage when confronted with Medea. Further, modern plays often offer this type of ending as well. For instance, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie allows audience members to consider the theme of love and romance, superimposed with family. At the end of the story, audience members must contemplate whether Tom should have ever brought Jim home for Laura. This forces them to ask the general question -- is it better to leave someone in apparent misery or risk the chance of giving them false hope? In addition, audiences can ask the even more general question -- is it wrong to hope? Finally, Arp's claim can be true because of art. Even a terribly sad ending, if done beautifully, can leave the reader with a feeling of satisfaction rather than depression. This is…

This echoes life. To others we present as a simple person, perhaps even shallow and one-dimensional. Yet inside we are a mass of interminable twists and turns of plots and subplots. The story must reflect positive morality or, as Aristotle warned, when storytelling goes bad, the result is decadence. As stories become more extravagant and violent, and all the areas of storytelling - acting, stage settings or environments, music, sound effects and dialogue - become more riotous and tumultuous, the world of the stage and screen become grotesque and out of context. hen a culture experiences unmanageable difficulties it is time to return to the classical comedic theme, that of good triumphing over evil (McKee 15).
The play is the thing, it is said; and an inspired drama may bring one individual's explanation of that thing called life to an intrigued mind. The playwright must know himself first. Self-knowledge, plus…

EFEENCES

Brown, G. Movie Time: A Chronology of Hollywod. New York: McMillan, 1995.

Byrge, D. The Screwball Comedy Films. New York: McFarland, 1991.

"Censored Films and Television." January 2000. University of Virginia. September 2010 .

Dale, A. Comedy is a Man in Trouble. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

Ebert, . "Some Like It Hot." 9 January 2000. oger Ebert.com. 12 September 2010 .

Engleking, A. "A Barbed But Generous Comedy of Manners." 17 June 2010. Memphis Flyer. 12 September 2010 .

Greig, J. The Psychology of Laughter and Comedy. Charleston, SC: Nabu Press, 2010.

Henderson, J. "Comic Hero vs. Political Elite." al, Sommerstein et. Tragedy, Comedy and the Polis. Bari, Italy: Levanti Editori, 1993. 307-19.

King, G. Film Comedy. London: Wallflower Press, 2002.

Mast, G. The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.

Metz, W. Engaging Film Criticism: Film History and Contemporary American Cinema.…

comedy films "His Girl Friday," directed by Howard Hawks, and "Bedazzled," directed by Harold Ramis. Specifically, it will discuss these two comedies made at least 45 years apart, and comment on their similarities, their differences, and the societal changes that make films obsolete, or keep them classic.
COMEDIES IN TIME

Comedies are some of the most popular film genres of all times. They entertain, they make the audience laugh, and they all contain certain formulas that make them successful. Most comedies have a happy ending, likeable characters, and some ridiculous situations, and these two films are no exception. Even though they were made over 50 years apart, they contain some of the same compelling and humorous features, and some major differences.

Selling your soul to the devil for good fortune or a group of wishes is a topic written about numerous times. Goethe did it in "Faust," and it comes…

Divine Comedy vs. The Odyssey
Both Dante's epic poem The Divine Comedy and Homer's The Odyssey begin in media res, or in the middle of the protagonists' respective stories. Dante, the narrator, has reached middle age and is confronted with the specter of Virgil, his favorite pagan poet. Virgil leads Dante on a journey through hell, purgatory, and ultimately heaven. Virgil instructs the living, Italian Renaissance poet in the ways of personal and universal spiritual truths. Odysseus is similarly led by Athena through his journey. At the beginning of The Odyssey, the hero is trapped on the island of the nymph Calypso, after many years of trying to find his way home. However, while Odysseus is literally in the middle of his physical quest to come home, Dante is in the middle of a lifelong spiritual quest to understand Christian salvation. This underlines the fundamental difference between the two tales:…

All the while he is never in any danger because there is no risk of falling: he is simply playing at spoofing. But this is not Airplane -- a classic spoof comedy where every character, setting, and action in the film is designed to spoof airport genre thrillers popular at the time.
Ace is not exactly a derelict but he is outside the conventional social order: he is an outcast as far as the police are concerned. They are the ones with "real" authority -- yet, Ace does their job better than they do. He is under the suspicion of his landlord, who thinks he is housing animals in his apartment (he is). His wardrobe and hair are clownish representations of the Don Johnson Miami Vice type detective: coolness taken to a bizarre and exaggerated extreme (for example, the Hawaiian shirt, unbuttoned coupled with combat boots, clown pants and an…

Physical Comedy on Film
Sophisticated, Funny and Physical: The Romances of Astaire and Rogers

Physical comedy brings to mind Moe, Larry and Curly bopping each other over the head. Or it might suggest Lucille Ball stuffing chocolates into her mouth, her blouse or anyplace except on the conveyor belt in the neat little rows the candy-making supervisor intended. (Or better, her boozy bout with VitaMeataVegamin, the Peppy Picker-Upper.) A thousand reruns of a thousand theatrical shorts, like "The Three Stooges" films, and a hundred thousand reruns of sitcoms from "I Love Lucy" to "Seinfeld" (even that cerebral show had people climbing in and out of windows on occasion) pretty much give us our concept of what theatrical physical comedy is all about.

In short, we think of slapstick, defined by the TheatreCrafts.com glossary as:

Two pieces of wood loosely joined at one end, which make a loud "slap" sound when…

Tragedy & Comedy
One popular method of distinguishing between a comedy and a tragedy has always been by virtue of whether a play or film has a happy or tragic ending. Today, however, it is largely considered that a tragedy can be comic in parts, and need not necessarily result in an unhappy ending or death (Thorndike, p.2-3) Similarly, although comedies are widely defined as humorous entertainment, evoking a great deal of laughter and amusement, it does not necessarily follow that there are no serious, underlying messages. Thus, it is evident that types or genres of drama are intended to be categories that are not firm and that many plays may fit into a number of categories simultaneously. Indeed, the preceding observation is certainly true of many of Shakespeare's plays: "Shakespeare -- uses comedy in tragedy and tragedy in comedy...difficult to categorize." (Trumbull, 2002) It is the purpose of this…

Dark Humor and Satirical Comedy in "Divine Comedy" by Dante and "King Lear" by William Shakespeare
One of the most important functions that literature play in human society is that it does not only expresses and individual's (particularly the author's) thoughts about and interpretation of life, but it also reflects the state of society that the author lives in. Indeed, the function of literature as a reflection of the human society is illustrated in the works of Dante Alighieri and William Shakespeare, renowned authors of "Divine Comedy" and "King Lear," respectively.

In these literary works, a notable characteristic is the authors' ability to weave in the aspect of dark humor, aptly using satirical comedy in order to criticize the rulers and leaders of their societies during their time. Dante Alighieri wrote the "Divine Comedy" during the Italian Renaissance period from 12th-13th centuries. During this period, art as a form of…

Prowriter))
Comedy in Television and Theater

There are many forms of comedy, but two of the largest distinctions are high comedy and low comedy. "High comedy[…]evokes "intellectual laughter" -- thoughtful laughter from spectators who remain emotionally detached from the action" (Abrams, Harpham 51). A television show which incorporates high comedy is Monty Python's Flying Circus. "The Dead Parrot Sketch" is one such example of satire and witty banter which requires the audience, or spectators, to not only have a sizeable vocabulary (as John Cleese and Michael Palin exchange a myriad of terms for describing the parrot's state) but must be aware of the satirical value of some of Cleese's lines. "If you want to get anything done in this country, you've got to complain until you're blue in the mouth," Cleese says after being exasperated in his efforts to prove that the parrot he purchased is, in fact, dead. Later…

Shakespearean Social Comedy -- Saturnalian inversion or soulful exploration of social outsiders?
Barber's book, Shakespeare's Festive Comedy argues for a socially harmonious interpretation of Shakespeare's comedic plays. In contrast, the scholar Richard A. Levine's Love and Society in Shakespeare's Comedy proposes a socially subversive reading of the Shakespearean comedy, as kind of hidden tragedies of 'outsider' figures, rather than Saturnalian revelry. This contrast between the two authors may orginate in the fact that Barber focuses on the major characters of the dramatic texts, while Levine's thesis is detrived from his focus on comedy's outsider figures, such as Shylock and Malvolio. Levine argues that Shakespeare's comedic structure is really one of social critique rather than social affirmation because of the presence of such outsider figures, often excluded from romantic coupling.

Barber begins his book by stating that Shakespeare modeled his early comedies on traditional, pagan holiday entertainments. These were traditional dramatic…

Each film allows characters to break down first impression characteristics of self and other and build hopefully strong relationships as a result.
In order of the age of each film surface differences begin with the age group being characterized, with Breakfast Club discussing relationships between relatively immature, high school aged individuals seeking to build self-awareness and identity, through unlikely relationships, as all the characters are from different social clicks. hen Harry Met Sally comparatively discuses the personal relationship, as it evolves through early college age to the present, when the individuals are in their late 30s early 40s having built careers and had serious relationships. Finally, You've Got Mail details the lives of people who are late 20s early 30s and seeking romance after beginning careers as a central focus to life. Though all the works develop these themes in a single cultural perspective i.e. that of majority community members…

"The course of true love never did run smooth" (Lysander, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act , Scene ). Shakespeare's practically promotes this concept throughout the play, further reinforcing it by using the tension that emerges from the unusual relationships between some of the characters. It is not necessarily love that creates this tension, as it is actually the difficulty related to it that appeals to individuals watching the play. When love initially experiences progress in the play, fantasy prevents characters from being happy because of it, as it is asymmetrical, with two men loving the same woman while another woman is left with no one to love her. Titania's passion for Bottom makes matters even more confusing, considering that it seems very improbable for her to really want to put across any feelings toward the unsuccessful actor. Bottom contrasts Titania through his physical ugliness and through the fact that he…

[2: "Margaret Cho: Profiles," Finding Your Roots, PS, 2013 Available: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/profiles/margaret-cho/]
Such a claim would seem to ignore the extremely sexualized nature of both comedians' acts. They are aggressively, openly sexual in their use of language when discussing their relationships with men -- but once again, it could be argued that they are aggressive 'as a man,' and thus their humor functions at least in part as male impersonation. The question of whether a woman who is also considered desirable can be funny is a more vexing one, and perhaps the question should be rephrased if a beautiful woman can be considered funny. The cast of Friends featured many beautiful women who were funny, as did more recently the cast of ridesmaids. Tina Fey of Saturday Night Live fame and 30 Rock is a conventionally tall, beautiful brunette and has made a career as a writer of humor as well…

comedy in the film "Life if eautiful" (Roberto enigni)
It may seem strange to discus comedy in a film which essentially deals with the most devastating atrocity of the Twentieth Century -- the Holocaust. The film is also based on the love, anxiety and suffering of a father for his child in the most deadly of circumstances. However the film is a comedy in the larger sense of the word. It is essentially a celebration of life and a shout of defiance against the forces of darkness and evil that would consume the wonder of life. Critics have praised the film but also raised concerns about its subject matter and its proximity to the sensitive issue of the holocaust. One description of the film is: " ... A truly powerful film that manages to entertain, educate, and inspire with its potent combination of humor, poignancy, and dignity."

The film has…

Aristophanes
Acharnians, Knights, and Clouds are three of the most revered works by Aristophanes. These works are of particular interest to this discourse because they have clear political and social nuances which affected the manner in which they were received in Ancient Athens. The discussion posits that Aristophanes had concrete political concerns and he utilized his craft as a dramatist to expose these matters with the purpose of affecting change in society in a manner that was revolutionary and in so doing Aristophanes laid the foundation for modern philosophical thought.

Aristophanes, the Greek Dramatist, has long been revered as the father of Old Comedy[footnoteRef:1], authoring nearly 40 comedies 11[footnoteRef:2] of which are extant. These eleven works are the only Greek comedies to survive in their entirety. The influence of Aristophanes on drama has not been as significant as his impact on literature. His influence, however, in the field of literature…

Then comedy disappeared when the Roman Empire collapsed. Nonetheless, the moulds for its future development had been cast. Greek comedies were rediscovered during the Renaissance, the point of origin of comedy as we know it today. urthermore, the Renaissance brought two major developments to the comedy: the commedia dell'arte, and plot developments and defined archetypal characters (Storey: 407). "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is what theoreticians may call a classical comedy although it was written by William Shakespeare towards the end of the sixteenth century. Most of the troubles and humorous situations in the play arise from the theme of love: "The course of true love never did run smooth" (I.i.134) as one of the characters, Lysander prophetically formulates the development of the play. As far as the characters, Puck, king Oberon's jester, is responsible with the tricks provides the main sources of amusement. Moreover, he transforms Nick Bottom's - an…

Free Will in Dante's Divine Comedy
Everyone has the freedom to choose good or evil. The nature of freedom is that people decide what they want. God gave people free will. One expert defines the term free will as "the power of agents to be the ultimate creators (or originators) and sustainers of their own ends or purposes" (Kane 4). Dante's Divine Comedy shows this. People choose evil over God, and then they are knowingly committing an act of betrayal against God. God's knowledge of the choices people make does not mean people have no free will. God wants people to join and to enjoy Heaven with Him. He tests every individual's faith throughout his or her life in some way. The choices that people make will determine whether they go to Hell or Heaven, and this is a direct response to their own life choices and their own free…

After being assured that no matter what his original nationality, Tobey is still an American, Tobey says: "If Bess doesn't like me -- if she falls in love with somebody else -- if she's married when we get there -- I'm going to live in Ithaca, anyway. I don't know, but Ithaca seems to be my home now, too. For the first time in my life I feel I belong somewhere. I hope you won't mind. I feel like my family is the Macauley family, because that's the kind of family I would have if I could chose. (161-162)
Home, and America, is about feeling at home, not about one's national origin, place of birth, or even if one is genetically tied to a family. The longing of the soldiers for home and love, and the anxiety of how things are changing when they are away shows the vital and…

Saturnalia and Shakespearean Comedy
C.L. Barber argues that all of Shakespeare's festival comedies, such as "A Midsummer's Nights Dream" and "Twelfth Night," make us of the convention of the Roman Saturnalia. During Saturnalia in ancient Rome, the social norms of that world were turned upside down. Paupers were allowed to don the robes of the gentry, and slaves enacted the role of kings. This was not simply a fun ritual to while away the long winter hours of darkness, but an effective Freudian psychological release for the lower classes of an otherwise repressive society. At least, they could abuse their masters for a day. Likewise, the ruling classes achieved some security, by knowing that the negative feelings of the lower classes could be released in a contained and ritualized fashion, rather than through the uncontained means of revolt and permanent disorder such as revolution.

Similarly, all of Shakespeare's festival comedies…

On the contrary, "You Have Got Mail" is a new style of comedy movie that involves romance in a much open manner that it could not attract all age groups.
Key Features of New Comedy

Few traits of new comedy are as follows:

It revolves more around a boy and a girl and their love story

It involves a lot of physical relationship between male and female ( Richmond )

Related with love, desire and money

The comedy involves many subjects that were not considered as appropriate to be discussed openly in the past like homosexuality (Duralde).

Sex related jokes have become an integral part of comedy

Sex is also involved in today's concept of comedy

Destructive Impacts of Comedy

Comedy has always been a source of entertainment for every individual of all fields of life. It is a means to relax and with its involvement in Hollywood movies, number…

This film depicts the life of a woman who has not lived up to her cultural expectations and by the time she is thirty, she realizes that she is getting too old to find love. She then meets a man whom she falls in love with, but the problem lies in his not being from her same ethnic and cultural background. This creates turmoil among her extremely traditional family. Her father refuses to accept her new fiance, but insisting that she is in love, she gets her family to accept a non-Greek individual into their family. Unlike It Happened One Night (1934), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) shows how culture influences love in our civilization.
The relationship between these two individuals, demonstrates how much love means in our society. The underlying concern in this case is how two different cultures could unite to form a mutual one where everyone…

Dante Aligheri
Dante's Purgatorio

Dante's Divine Comedy depicts three possibilities of life after death: Inferno, or Hell, where the unsaved spend eternity, Purgatorio or Purgery, where the saved who still have some sins to account for go, and finally Paradiso, or Paradise, the final destiny of the faithful. The Canto's of each possibility are told through the viewpoint of Dante and Virgil, who make the journey together. The discussion that follows is focused on the insights and meaning derived from the two artists' journey through Purgatorio.

The Spiritual Meaning of Purgatorio

The main, spiritual meaning of Purgatorio focuses on the fact that it is a transitory state between the death of the body and the spirit's ascendance to heaven. In contrast to Inferno, the souls doing penance here have the hope of its end and of their final admission into paradise. The atmosphere in this place also substantiates the feeling…

Although Viola in She's the Man may be discriminated against, because of her gender, Shakespeare's Viola has never been allowed to be assertive in a physical manner because the way women are socialized. This is why Shakespeare's Viola is both a sadder and more vulnerable character throughout Twelfth Night, in contrast to the more tomboyish Viola in the modern film who can fend for herself.
The romantic aspects of the original are relatively the same: Viola loves Duke Orsino (simply known as "Duke" in the film), Duke loves Olivia, and Olivia loves Viola, whom she thinks is a boy. But there is none of the melancholy that characterizes Shakespeare's comedy in this frustration of desire. Olivia rejects men because she is pining for her brother, who is dead, and when she allows herself to fall in love again, she finds herself cruelly rejected despite the fact that "he" seems to…

The film Shrek is a lighthearted animated movie produced by DreamWorks. Shrek can also be classified as a family movie, not only because it is animated but also because the plot, themes, and dialogue are suitable for children of all ages. At the same time, Shrek contains enough sophistication to please an adult audience, too. It is funny, albeit in a straightforward and occasionally formulaic way that includes the use of slapstick and situational comedy as well as verbal comedy. The movie does, however, use satire to make fun of the gendered tropes used in childrens fairy tales.The film follows the title

hen Alex tries to find out what his father looked like, his sister says she saw him at the Burger King. He wore gold rimmed glasses and drove a Volvo. That's not a very specific description; but she also said he eats cheeseburgers, so the director cuts to a scene of a very morbidly obese man stuffing a triple cheeseburger into his fat face. The place that the cheeseburger man is in seems quite opulent, and Alex says, "He lived in his world, and I lived in mine." This is poignant because throughout the movie Alex has indicated that he wants to know something about his father.

Another scene that relates to the geographic portion of the movie is Alex roaring along on a motor bike, saying life in East Berlin was moving faster and faster, "e were all like tiny atoms in a huge particle accelerator." But his mother,…

Another reason for the seemingly self-centered behavior is fear of embarrassment: what if I rush to help a person in need but I am promptly made a fool of by the criminal? Furthermore, many people assume that someone else will do something; we basically don't feel responsible in situations like these, just as George, Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer felt not the slightest inkling of social responsibility.
In fact, the entire sitcom is based on the fact that many people feel a complete lack of social responsibility: we are selfish, self-centered individuals. If helping someone isn't in our best interest, or if we won't get anything out of it personally, chances are we will stand back and watch. We are voyeuristic, insular, and eerily similar to George, Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer. The characters' arrest under the "Good Samaritan" law leads to a trail in which their moral characters are scrutinized in…

Not that I judge it.(puts head in hands.beat. looks up) Listen, I don't want to be dead yet. Is there any way to...
Even though that dialogue of Nathan is ludicrous it reflects truth of modern moral realities, as quite often restrictions in communication are created by people themselves, so they suffer most from virtues of their own ethics. Love and snobbism cannot correlate, as love requires freedom of feelings and freedom of their expression. From the other side, human sexual desires have noting to do with animal instincts as they can be realized only if human communication and mutual sympathy are present. Puff learns these facts in order to get sexual satisfaction, as he needs to follow the rules established by human society; Lilia understands that hiding her real nature she suffers more turning into snob and hypocrite.

Human nature shows, that in modern world it's important not to…

The death that occurs at the end of the Cherry Orchard -- that of the serf-turned-servant, Fiers -- is far more comic than the death of Konstantin, however, and that is why this death occurs onstage rather than out of sight of the audience. Much of the Cherry Orchard is focused on the inability of many of the characters to see beyond the ends of their own noses and immediate interests; with better foresight and acknowledgement of others, many of the bad things that befall the characters could have been averted. This is definitely a dark form of comedy, but the repeated nature of this trope throughout the play makes it ultimately comedic. The idea that Fiers decides to curl up on a couch in an old house and die, having been forgotten by his family and former masters, is the final punch-line of the play and must be seen…

Turandot
Spectacle, Exoticism, Intricacy, and Comedy: Exploring the High Theatre of Carlo Gozzi's Turandot

Theatre has always been something of a bellwether for cultural progress and change, with societal issues dealt with explicitly in the action of stage plays since the time of the ancient Greeks and with trends in performance styles and subject matter providing a clear representation of societal mores and cultural values at any given place and time. During the Dark Ages, for example, there essentially was no theatre aside from Church-inspired and -- approved drama recounting certain Biblical stories, primarily those related to Jesus' passion. This reflected society at large, in which literacy and learning had stagnated and very little cultural or technological progress was made throughout much of Europe. With the enaissance comes the return of drama, and indeed one of the high points in theatrical writing and performance just as the period was one…

Hot is a classic Hollywood comedy with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe, and it is special in many ways. Directed by Billy Wilder, a legendary director in Hollywood, the film was shot in black and white, and uses straightforward lighting, camera shots, and editing to create a film that is visual, but never takes anything away from the cast, the script, and the setting. It is the acting and the music that all add up to make this film memorable, and it is an excellent example of when to use unique camera and lighting techniques, and when not to.
Most of the camera shots in this film are straightforward. There are several deep-focus scenes, such as the pivotal scene in the garage when the car careens into the garage, and then the men are lined up against the wall. The lighting in this scene is dark in the…

Philadelphia Story
In his 1940 romantic comedy adaptation of Philip Barry's Broadway play, director George Cukor allows Katherine Hepburn, James Stewart and Cary Grant to light up the screen and carry the movie without confusing the audience with camera tricks and editing.

By using subtle camera techniques, Cukor introduces the main characters through action and relies on his star ensemble to paint the picture of their respective characters. The editing is fluid as well as the cinematography. Using such devices as off-screen dialogue, and cues, we follow Hepburn, a Philadelphia socialite as she attempts to marry another man, and avoid a tabloid hound.

Cinematically, this is typical of the movies Hollywood was making in the 1940s. This particular film went on to win a string of Oscars, including Best Picture, and Best Director. Cukor interplays the style of writing within his camera directions so as to allow for an enjoyable…

African-American in the Media
The comedy Barbershop, starring Ice Cube juxtaposes the harshness of city life with the resiliency of the people living in the city. The movie with its black cast has an impressive standing in the movie industry for the year 2002. I'm not sure that I agree that this specific film means a breakthrough for African-Americans in the industry. The Black person has after all been part of the industry for a long time, and there are many African-American stars, not featured in this movie, who have made a great success of their movie careers.

The "integration period" for example is determined to be around the years 1949-1969. During this period there is an integration of Black people into the societies depicted in films. Thus the African-American is portrayed in a more positive way. Also, "black" themes and issues of conflict among races and peers are depicted…

Inferno, Canto 12" by Alighieri Dante. Specifically, it will contain an analysis of the simile and meaning of Canto 12. This work will focus on his use of the epic simile, especially as it relates and illuminates the role of knowledge in the poem.
CANTO

In Canto 12 of Dante's "Inferno," Dante employs an epic simile in which he compares a bull on the way to slaughter to the dreaded Minotaur, guardian of the labyrinth, and a living symbol of the violence throughout the story that Dante must face to make his way finally to Paradise. This simile portrays both the tension of the moment, and the story as a labyrinth Dante must negotiate to find his ultimate reward, life in heaven with the woman he adores.

The "Inferno" is the first of three books that make up Dante's classical work "The Divine Comedy." The "Inferno" follows Dante's journey through…

Family Loyalty Is at the Heart of Any Successful Family
Without the obvious family loyalty peppered throughout it, "Little Miss Sunshine" would be just another film. The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze Denise Duhamel's poetry collection "Kinky," and Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton's film "Little Miss Sunshine." Specifically it will discuss the role of family in the works. Clearly, the Hoover family of "Little Miss Sunshine" is not your average, run of the mill family. They could be one of the most dysfunctional families every introduced in a film. However, they have one common denominator, and that is loyalty. They stand behind Olive and her dreams, and they all support her, which shows that despite their faults, they love each other.

One of the main messages in the film "Little Miss Sunshine," is that family, no matter how dysfunctional, is the key to any real…

Pride in Dante
For Dante, Pride is simply not acceptable. It is considered the worst of all sins and the theme of humility is thus present throughout the text. Since Pride is such given such a mammoth place in the text, it is also important to mention how Dante believed it could be removed. Thus he refers to pride in the book called Purgatory to illustrate the point that purging oneself from pride is needed to gain salvation in the end. Dante wants to go through the process of purging since he is not the most modest person himself. He considered himself far above many poets and artists of his time and hence seen cleansing.

As Dante enters the cornice of the proud, he can hear those who had been too proud in the world wishing for some humility. Here once learns that pride is very closely related to the…

This suggests that it is an intellectual understanding of her friend's beatings and not a true emotional empathy that she is after. Though the scene is most definitely tragic, if it is approached with the same intellectual curiosity that the two adolescents bring to it can only be seen as an episode of horribly dark humor. The fact that endla can be so foolish as to desire an intellectual understanding of child abuse shows her complete lack of a true appreciation for the situation, and is thus a comic -- not necessarily humorous, but comical nonetheless -- situation.
The end of a play is also one way to determine if a particular work is a comedy or a tragedy. The fact that Moritz and endla are both unnecessarily dead at the end of the play at first seems to suggest a tragedy, as does Melchior's expulsion. hen the characters end…

And Sellers plays the repressed social engineer Strangelove, the timid Merkin Muffley, and the persevering Mandrake -- all with mechanical precision. Kubrick's unflinching camera acts as a character, too, slyly observing the exposition of humanity in all its grimly humorous glory.
This film belongs to a culture that has rejected the status quo -- the quaint picturesque comedies of the 1940s and 1950s; it belongs to a culture that is bordering on nihilism, anarchy, revolution -- anything that will help it to get away from the culture that has brought us the faceless, nameless idiots running the ar Room in Dr. Strangelove. The film offers no solutions -- it only asks us to present ourselves to world with fresh eyes, a pure soul able and willing to laugh at its human foibles and failings, and begin to meditate upon a new direction, a new solution perhaps to the problem of…

Dante and Beatrice
An Analysis of the Relationship of Beatrice to Dante

Dante describes his meeting with Beatrice at an early age and in La Vita Nuova (The New Life) discusses and poeticizes the love he instantly held for her. Beatrice becomes for Dante a gate to the divine love that he examines in La Comedia, today referred to as The Divine Comedy. This paper will analyze the relationship between Dante and Beatrice and show how her role in his life is like that of a muse -- an agent of God, drawing the poet closer and closer not to herself but to the Divine.

The Vita Nuova

In the Vita Nuova, of course, Dante is drawn solely to Beatrice without anticipating the higher love that Beatrice reflects in her own person. It is this reflection in her that attracts Dante, although he does not place it as a reflection…

In fact, the Toy is considered to be one of the most racist films of all time due to these issues (Sastry).
Blazing Saddles and the Toy approach comedy from distinct perspectives, and although they may have common elements, the differences in their approach to humor, comedy, and race allow the audience to understand why Blazing Saddles is successful in its commentary on society and why the Toy fails miserably at changing people's perspectives about society in a positive way. Brooks's approach to race and social status helps to redefine how blacks were viewed in cinema, and also helps to demonstrate that previous cinematic depictions have been skewed due the control exercised by Hollywood executives. On the other hand, Donner's approach to race and social status ends up being degrading, racist, and further reinforces negative stereotypes of race and social status. It is through these various depictions and approaches that…

Juliet's speeches to the Friar after learning that she must marry Paris in a week's time indicate this as she lists the horrors she would rather endure: "bid me leap... / From off the battlements of any tower...lurk / here serpents are; chain me with roaring bears..." (Riverside 1130, IV.i. 77-80). She continues in much the same vein, and this is not her only moment of such emotional extremity. To see this as comedic, it must be remembered that Juliet is only twelve years old, and Romeo probably around fourteen, and although people married younger in those days it is ridiculous to assume that they could possibly have had the same emotional maturity as other of Shakespeare's heroes and heroines.
In Baz Luhrmann's 1997 film version of Romeo and Juliet, certain aspects of the storyline are also ridiculously overblown. Luhrmann does not attempt to approach comedy in the tragic moments…

The city itself is a draw for drunken debauchery and many of the stereotypical Las Vegas attitudes and cultural keystones pervade the film. One of the friends marries a stripper named Jade, played by Heather Graham, who in fact is the mother of the baby the three friends find in their hotel suite near the beginning of the film. The film's attempt at complete plot extremes are realized in this plot twist, as well as when conservative, conscientious dentist Stu, as played by Ed Helms, awakes to find one of his incisors missing. Later in the film, the audience learns that Stu has removed his own tooth with a pair of pliers on a drunken bet. The base level irony and extreme nature of Stu's drunken behavior are also highlights of the film, and help make this comedy fun to watch and very unpredictable.
The group of friends has to…

The parallels between these situations and Frye's basic assessment of the plot of New Comedies are not, perhaps, immediately apparent, but they have the same effect by the end of the play, where "the audience witnesses the birth of a renewed sense of social integration" (Frye 94). The parent/child relationships have been largely done away with in favor of te romantic ties that seem to be favored by the play. It is disingenuous, however, to dismiss the issue of class in this play outright. In many ways, the relationships between the various fathers and their children can be een to be indicative of class lines. Launcelot's position and its possible implications in his treatment of his father have already been discussed, but both his and Jessica's treatment of Shylock still deserved comment. Jessica is somewhat exonerated for her actions towards her father (again, the degree depends on the particular choices…

Humor in 3 Films
Comedy has often provided the perfect vehicle for social and political commentary. Three films that use comedy to as the basis for social and political commentary are Duck Soup (1933), The Great Dictator (1940), and Some Like It Hot (1959). Duck Soup, The Great Dictator, and Some Like It Hot provide commentary on social and political issues, as well as on issues of sex and gender.

Duck Soup is a Marx Brothers classic directed by Leo McCarey in which Groucho Marx plays Rufus T. Firefly, a man who is appointed to the position of Freedonia, a small country that has recently gone bankrupt (Duck Soup). Firefly's appointment as leader is made as part of an agreement between undisclosed members of the country in exchange for continued financial support from Mrs. Gloria Teasdale, a wealthy widow. At the same time, Freedonia's neighbor, Sylvania, is plotting to take…

His father agreed to teach him music if he would marry his daughter. The man agreed, but the girl was so ugly that they never spoke. They continued to learn music with the father's strict teaching. The man leaves and does not marry the daughter. She is coming to the river to purify herself and to rid herself of desire. The narrator in the story is at the same river to rid him of worldly desires, just as the daughter is trying to.
Transcendence

The moral of this story is that music and its spiritual connection is better than any earthly desire. e see the same portrayal of music and spirituality in Dante's work as well. Music is used in Dante's work to signal the reader that something wonderful and beyond normal human experience is happening. Music is used to set the mood in Dante's work. For instance, the use…

For example, the popular sitcoms Good Times and Sanford and Son showed working class neighborhoods and the problems of violence, crime, and social oppression, and yet how humor always finds its way into these character's lives.
The 1970s also brought about a new late night live comedy show, called Saturday Night Live. This show had its first run from 1975 to 1980, and made political humor the centerpiece of Saturday night television. The original cast consisted of Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, George Coe, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Michael O'Donoghue and Gilda Radner, a diverse mix of young comedians from around New York City. Saturday Night Live is famous for its portrayals of U.S. Presidents, from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama, and has helped to shape Americans impressions of how these presidents have reacted to events in the world. (Boskin, 46) Saturday Night Live created a demanding…

Political satire has long been a standard method of political and social commentary. Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal" is a prime example of how satire is a powerful vehicle for raising awareness about critical social and political issues, but doing so in a relatively nonthreatening and accessible way. In the United States, political cartoons have long been the bastion of political satire. Howeve, r as allachy puts it, "American satire has changed a great deal since Benjamin Franklin's 'Join or Die' cartoon," (1). Technology is one reason why political satire in America has changed its approach. Both Jesse atters and Samantha Bee have traditional television shows on the one hand, but both also benefit from new media both to find fodder for their discussions but also to propagate their ideas. However, there are critical differences between these two political humor shows. The most glaring difference is that Bee offers…

In the third chapter of Flight, Zits describes who is perhaps "the only real friend of [his] life" as a "pretty white boy" who "doesn't even like or respect Jesus -- or Allah or Buddha or LeBron James or any other God" (Alexie 24). In what is otherwise a very poignant passage, where Zits is explaining is near-instant love for this boy he meets in jail, the mention of LeBron James in the company of various prophets/deities is a not-so-subtle cynical undercut of what could be an intensely emotional scene. It is not further referenced, and this type of occurrence doesn't appear again in this passage, but there is a sense of slight self-mocking throughout due to remarks like these.
The self-mocking is anything but slight in Moore's "How to Become a riter." The speaker opens by telling you to try to be something else, and to fail at it…

comedians obbin Williams Jim Carrey. I love actors favorite comedic actors. obin Williams Jim Carey a slapstick stand routines.
Comparing and Contrasting Jim Carrey and obin Williams

Brief intro into comedy history and it's transformation

What comedy means

obin Williams

Biographical information

Comedy background

Jim Carrey

Biographical information

Comedy background

Compare both characters

Slapstick comedy

apid fire verbal and physical comedy

Stand-up comedy when first started career

Contrast both characters

Age difference

Williams has had longer career than Carrey

Types of comedy when first began career

Carrey more physical

Williams more "silly" and "off the wall"

Success rates with other genre besides comedy

Williams has had more "serious" roles than Carrey

Williams has a higher success rate than Carrey in other venues besides cinema iii. Williams more awards than Carrey

Williams in more roles outside of comedy

VI- Conclusion

a. Summary of paper

b. How the two comedians have made…

Comedic Writing
How does one describe the nature of comedy? Comedy is both simple and complicated. How comedy works is simple, but what is funny is complicated. Comedy describes the nature of the universe in universal terms. Every culture has a sense of humor. Every culture across the global and across time values humor. There are figures in literature and culture such as "the fool," and "the jester." These kinds of figures in literature and history and culture are valuable. The voice of comedy is often one that is able to cross social boundaries/construction, class, institutions, etc. The Shakespearean fool gets to speak the truth when often many other characters cannot. As Shakespeare wrote in "Hamlet," "Much truth is said in jest." Comedy as a psychological expression or function is also very interesting. The ways people use comedy say a lot about who they are and what they think. Comedic…

She notes that "the laughter from the women in the group led to a pretty obvious bleeding of mascara" (2006). During this uproar, a male voice from the audience piped up and said he didn't find any of it funny. A few more men murmured sounds of agreement. The man said these women were nothing more than a couple of drunks. He ended with the comment, "I don't get the joke" (2006). Umberto Eco has a theory on comedy and cathartic pleasure, "the rule has to be completely understood and, according to Eco, 'inviolable'" (2006).
For women to be able to express themselves freely without worrying if men get the joke or not is important and about time. Sex has always been a part of a discursive notion of 'fun', one with rigidly drawn boundaries which position readers in specific ways. "Men were in on the joke; women could play…

Restoration Drama: the Rake as a Symbol of Social Disorder
One of the distinctive features of Restoration comedy is the figure of the rake as romantic hero. The image of the rake-hero is of a witty, cynical, calculating, and self-serving man who pursues his own pleasure above all other considerations. Antagonistic to established rules and mores, the rake rejects conventional ideas of virtue, integrity, fidelity, restraint; above all he adopts a rhetorical position of opposition to the institution of marriage. However, it is significant that in most plays which feature a rake-hero in a prominent role, he becomes reconciled to the concept of marriage and ends up either actually married or firmly committed to marriage. It is the contention of this paper that first, it is overly simplistic to see the rake as irredeemably opposed to marriage, and that the relationship between such figures and the institution of wedlock is…

Pseudolus carries a large portion of the dialogue and appears in most of the scenes. Pseudolus introduces the characters and scenes in the movie's opening, and speaks directly to the audience. While one is not expected to find sympathy with the character, it is recognized that the servi character, particularly Pseudolus, is the best-informed character and his machinations directly impact most of what occurs in the movie.
The character of Miles Gloriosus is named after the Roman character archetype. The name refers to a braggart soldier. This character typically is full of himself, viewing himself as superior. For example when Marcus Lycus says that he is dazzled by Miles' presence, Miles responds "Everyone is." Miles Gloriosus serves the plot by providing a comedic counterpoint to the protagonist of the play, the adulescens character.

The braggart soldier is a traditional archetype in Roman theatre, largely because the character was familiar to…

Music and Dance in Indian Films
In sheer quantity, INDIA produces more movies than any other country in the world-over 900 feature-length films in at least 16 languages, according to a recent industry survey. This productivity is explained by several factors: the size of the Indian audience, low literacy rates, the limited diffusion of television in India, and well-developed export markets in both hemispheres. (http://worldfilm.about.com/cs/booksbolly/)

In its historical development, India's film industry paralleled that of the West. Dadasaheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra, the first silent film for popular consumption, appeared in 1913; Alam Ara, the first "talkie," was released in 1931. ut the Indian cinema derived its unique flavor from the older Indian musical theater-particularly from the Urdu poetic dramas of the late nineteenth century. The influence of this tradition ensured that Indian movies would favor mythological or legendary-historical stories, that their dialogue would carry an Urdu flavor even in languages…

film and events in American history. There are five references used for this paper.
Some events in history and various aspects of the entertainment industry have been known to affect each other. It is interesting to determine whether the Great Depression affected American Comedy, as well as why newsreels were important during orld ar II, and how they influenced fictional combat film.

The Great Depression

hen the Great Depression occurred, many Americans went from living in comfortable homes with plenty to eat, to living on the streets and begging for money and food on corners. These people did not have many reasons to laugh, and therefore it was important for the entertainment industry to find ways to take their minds of their troubles.

The Screwball Comedy

Since the "earliest days of cinema, there has been the existence of clown comedy, however the screwball variety arose during the Great Depression. One…

Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Classic tragedies possess tragic heroes and cataclysmic endings. Otherwise strong and potentially great leaders fall prey to human character flaws such as hubris. In a true tragedy, the protagonist does not emerge victorious, but rather, typically brings about their own and others' downfalls. Tragic heroes squander their personal power and usually learn from their mistakes, but moments too late. Classical tragedies rarely have more than a smidgen of comic relief and are typically devoid of lighter moments. Comedies, on the other hand, can include tragic elements and remain comedies. So-called "black" comedies include elements of the tragic and the funny. Through farce, the themes of the drama are imparted powerfully. Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is therefore an example of a comedy, not a tragedy. The play's protagonist, George, is no tragic hero, and nor is his wife Martha. Unlike classic heroes like…

Instead, he proved that art can be achieved through more than one means and that his movies would ultimately achieve great results in the film industry.
The main reason for why Kubrick has drawn many critiques for his movies is that he chose to satirize society through a series of cliches.

Similar to Kubrick, Park Chan-Wook, the South-Korean filmmaker, has intended to make movies that would bring together both comedy and drama into films that have a touch of satire of the society.

Park's films are generally recognized for the direct way that he uses to make his audience better accustomed with his work. Both Park and Kubrick have abused extreme violence and S.F. In their movies, but this only added to the dramatic feeling that one gets when viewing one of their creations. Kubrick and Park stand out from the rest of the film directors for the reason that…

In addition, Lett (1987) emphasizes that, "Cultural materialists maintain that a society's modes of production and reproduction determine its social structure and ideological superstructure, but cultural materialists reject the metaphysical notion of Hegelian dialectics that is part of dialectical materialism" (80). Indeed, according to Bradshaw (1993), "the British cultural materialist knows that the 'radical,' 'subversive,' 'marginal,' or 'dissident' perspective is always superior (9). This author maintains that British cultural materialist readings of Shakespeare tend to assign particular characters or speeches a privileged, supra-dramatic significance that may override meaningful analysis if care is not taken (Bradshaw 9).
According to Bate (1994), it has become increasingly common in recent years for scholars to adopt either the new historicism or cultural materialist perspective alone when considering these literary works, particularly as they apply to Shakespeare. In this regard, MacDonald (1994) suggests that the New Historicist camp enjoys a clear advantage because they "define…

Rage in Shakespeare
Of all the emotions, rage is one of the most unpredictable and often ends with unexpected consequences. illiam Shakespeare used rage as a major theme is many of his plays because of the unexpected consequences of the emotion. In his play Othello, for instance, rage was used as a tool by which tragedy ultimately occurs. On the other hand, in The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare used tragedy to invoke a comedic response on the part of the audience. These two plays demonstrate how rage can be used in different ways with different results.

One of the most prominent themes of Shakespeare's Othello is that of rage, it dominated the entire play. It began with the rage of Iago, who has been angered because he had been passed over for a promotion. His rage unleashed a series of events that caused a great deal of destruction, not only…

Aristophanic invective against a rival dramatist: the fragment from the lost Lemnian omen included in Henderson's edition as number 382, attested to in two separate ancient sources (suggesting it was considered a particularly choice joke):
Because it is a pun made on the name of the tragedian Dorillus or Dorilaos -- we are not sure of the spelling, since none of his work survives and the pun in Aristophanes' fragment is the chief testimony to his work -- Henderson finds a novel solution for translating this untranslatable joke: "the women fence off their pussy shelleys" (Henderson 291). As a hint to the plot of the lost Lemnian women, the sense of sexual pleasure being deliberately withheld, as in Lysistrata, seems to adhere to this particular fragment: but indeed Martin (1987), in an important article on the use of the mythology of Lemnos and Lemnian women within Lysistrata, indicates that the…